Based more on experience than reason, I've always thought of theatre as a broadly leftwing interest. It isn't an arena in which you'd expect the support, participation or understanding of religious fundamentalists. But it's fair to say it's not an art form that transfixes the mainstream, either. Even the most fervent theatre-lover would concede that it's a bit taxing, a bit special-interest, and most people, whatever they put on their internet dating profile, would rather watch telly. That being the case, you'd think they'd just ignore it, the God-botherers, the way I'd ignore a can't-fill-the-stadium faith healer.

But they never do ignore it. In Alabama, you have Christian politicians so terrified by Tennessee Williams that they want to get all his plays, "dig a hole and dump them in it". (This is a cute sidestep of Nazi-tainted book-burning, don't you think?) In Birmingham, there were Sikhs so afraid of a small-scale fringe production that they demonstrated it off the stage. Before you even get to worrying about free speech and suchlike, you have to marvel: just how influential do these people think theatre is? They really should attend more often. They'd realise the only way you could fill even a 50-seater for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof would be to promise unscripted nudity and a free rum punch with every ticket.